It took about half an hour to get back to the Indian reservation that surrounded the mountains, and another half an hour to get back to Temecula. Still riding high off adrenaline, Kaveh made the drive easily, his blue-haired passenger in the back “trying” to “get some sleep.” The sky was clear and blue, orange groves lining the road in perfect rows. This area of picturesque farmland was always green, but the winter rains made the whole valley greener than it was at any other point during the year. The brush on the mountains glowed with life, the grass verdant, the bushes on the side of the road dusted with millions of tiny yellow flowers. Man, it’s been so long since I’ve been in California, he thought. I never really appreciated California enough. Earth is beautiful. I hope it’s not about to get destroyed.

He chanced a look at the girl in the back seat, who appeared to have finally fallen asleep, her hands clenched tight around the hoodie he had given her as a cover, her brow furrowed like she was concentrating on a difficult math problem. Could he possibly be this lucky? That the most interesting story in human history just fell into his lap? Somewhere, a monkey’s paw must be curling its finger.

He had expected the tourists to have fled, but despite a sizable crowd still congregating in the field near the blockade, Temecula seemed more or less back to normal, War of the Worlds–style doom horns followed by major earthquakes notwithstanding. After all, if aliens were going to invade, it was probably going to be in this general Area 51–adjacent vicinity, and if you can’t stand a little earthquake now and then, you have no business being in California, anyway.

Kaveh found a secluded spot in the casino parking garage, responded to some very upset text messages from Paris, and then turned to examine his new “source,” asleep and vulnerable in the back of his Land Rover. She was so hopelessly in over her head it would be comical if the stakes weren’t so high, and he was fairly sure that once he got a better handle on the situation, that fact would play into his hands handsomely.